How 3D Scanning Brought 'BioShock Infinite' to Life

Below:

Next story in Tech and gadgets

When Irrational Games needed to create a distinctive look to
promote the female lead in the video game "BioShock Infinite," it
looked to 3D scanning rather than traditional modeling software.
The game's leading lady, Elizabeth Comstock, is one of the most
original and engaging digital characters in years, and her
realistic appearance in a commercial for the game revealed how
effectively the technology can convey facial features and
emotions.

Elizabeth's in-game design came from a traditional combination of
motion-capture for her body and 3D modeling for her face, but
Irrational needed a face for Elizabeth in the promotional
materials — billboards, print and online ads and even TV spots.
As the game neared its release in March, Irrational knew that
Elizabeth would have to grab the audience's attention right away,
and set about crafting a TV commercial for the game.

Elizabeth's expressive face and realistic features come by way of
an Artec 3D scanner: a professional-grade product made by a
startup company in Moscow.

"Our scanners are a little different," Anna Zevelyov, Artec 3D
Scanning's director of business development, told TechNewsDaily.
"Actually, they're a lot different!" Whereas most professional-grade
3D scanners rest on a tripod and require a person to move
them around an object very slowly, Artec's scanner is handheld
and operates like a video camera.

"You take it in your hand, you walk around the object, and you
capture it at 16 [frames per second]," Zevelyov said. "It
automatically aligns all the strains together to create a single
object in 3D." The Artec scanners' size and rapidity make them a
natural fit for capturing human subjects, Zevelyov said. "Humans
can't stand still very long," she added.

Irrational Games sought out Anna Moleva, a popular Russian
cosplayer — someone who dresses
up as characters from pop culture for conventions or photo
shoots — to represent Elizabeth in the commercial. As a Russian
scanning company, Artec was a natural fit.

"This beautiful young Russian woman came by and she was posing,"
Zevelyov explained. "We scanned her here and sent the scans to
Los Angeles. They did all the postproduction on it; they made her
come to life."

"We made her do a bunch of faces," Zevelyov said. "Here she is
angry, here she is sad, here she is laughing, here she is
frowning … Once [artists] get these scans, they don't have to
imagine what she might look like, because they've never seen
her." Zevelyov estimates the whole scanning session took, at
most, 20 minutes — a far cry from the eight-plus hours it can
often take designers to create a face from scratch. [See also:
The 10 Most Stunning Video Games ]

Without 3D scanning, making a face for a video game character can
be an arduous process, to say nothing of animating it or
connecting it to a moveable body. "It takes [designers] about
four hours to draw a face, and another four hours to draw the
texture and color of the face, and the shape," Zevelyov said.

"Let's say they want to digitize Brad Pitt," she continued. "They
would take a couple of pictures of his face, they would take
their mouse, or their haptic device or drawing pad, and then they
would just draw. This will take hours and hours … It's
time-consuming to do a good job."

Zevelyov believes that game designers could benefit from 3D
scanning for a
variety of objects beyond faces. She discussed the
possibilities for racing games in particular, which could cut out
a huge amount of work recreating complex automobile interiors and
exteriors from scratch. "If you have a scanner, you spend an
hour, maybe two [per car]," she said. Zevelyov sees similar
applications for whole human bodies, and even grass and trees for
realistic outdoor scenes.

Artec is one of many 3D scanners on the market, but it differs
from its competitors due to its mobility and price point. "If you
scan Michelangelo's 'David,' you can't touch it, you can't move
it. It's just standing there … It's beneficial to have a scanner
that you can hold in your hand, not standing on a tripod
somewhere." Artec's scanners cost between $10,000 and $20,000 — a
near-impossibility for hobbyists, but a more reasonable
proposition in an industry where scanners routinely cost between
$50,000 and $200,000.

3D printing and scanning is catching on at an exponential rate,
and Zevelyov hopes that Artec can make the technology as
accessible as possible. "It's extremely complicated to go from 3D
scanning to software to 3D printing," she said. "Every step is
difficult, but to do all three steps in a row is nearly
impossible."

Difficult or not, Artec helped Irrational create a memorable
promotion for an unforgettable game. "[Irrational] took the time
to make a beautiful game," said Zevelyov. "It is so intricate and
detailed; it is so authentic." With any luck, " BioShock
Infinite " will not be the last property that leverages 3D
scanning to boast those qualities.